Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao marked the end of this year's National People’s Congress with a press conference in which he urged China to press ahead with political reform to avoid "historical tragedy" like the Cultural Revolution. Ahead of the event...
Woeser, a Tibetan writer who has authored online articles and non-fiction books about her birthplace, has been prevented from attending a ceremony in which the Dutch Ambassador in China was to present her with an award from the Prince Claus Fund....
A veteran Chinese pro-democracy campaigner based in Wuhan has been warned by state security police not to proceed with plans for a website aimed to promote "peaceful" reform. Qin Yongmin, who was freed from prison in November 2010 after serving a...
Zhu Yufu, a poet and activist, was last week charged with crimes relating to subversion for writing and publishing a poem online. The poem, It’s Time, has been translated by A.E. Clark: It's time, people of China! It's time. The Square belongs to...
The defection of Chinese writer and dissident Yu Jie last week revealed shocking allegations of torture and beatings more usually associated with rogue American troops in Iraq. Yu, a close friend of imprisoned Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo, is most...
As the number of Confucius Institutes continues to increase, there have been renewed concerns about how these organisations restrict free expression, particularly from among the international community. The centres, which are dedicated to Chinese...
The brother of Chinese dissident human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has told two news agencies that his brother is now in a Xinjiang prison, being the first confirmation of his whereabouts in 20 months. Gao Zhiyi added that he received a notice last...
Is China’s foreign policy shaped by national public opinion or is the government shaping public opinion to justify its foreign policy? An interesting new analysis by the Brookings Institute has it that the government is manipulating nationalist...
An urgent appeal from Chinese writer Yan Lianke to the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Prime Minister Esteemed General Secretary and Prime Minister: I am a writer and a university professor. Before deciding to write...
The new boss of CCTV, China’s state TV network, Hu Zhanfan, says it like it is. He believes Chinese journalists should first and foremost be the Chinese government’s mouthpiece and those that don’t play ball won’t go far. “The first social...